The Man Not Named in 'Moneyball'

By

Brian Costa

September 16, 2011

Paul DePodesta could have been like Billy Beane. He could have had his name, his image and his story immortalized on the big screen in "Moneyball," the film about the 2002 Oakland Athletics set to premiere next weekend.

ENLARGE

Paul DePodesta, who now works for the Mets, was the inspiration for Jonah Hill's character in 'Moneyball.
Associated Press

But to DePodesta, the former Athletics executive who now works in the Mets' front office, it was never his story. And the character that was supposed to be him always seemed like someone else. Which is why, for as much as the movie is based on a chapter of DePodesta's career, it's not about him at all.

Unlike Beane, the longtime Oakland general manager who is played by Brad Pitt, DePodesta isn't named in the movie. His character, played by Jonah Hill, was given the fictional name of Peter Brand—at DePodesta's request.

"I just could never get comfortable with the idea of somebody else portraying me to the rest of the world," DePodesta said. "It's very unnerving, and it was something that wasn't going to go away. That was always in my mind."

DePodesta's unease with the movie isn't a matter of shyness, though. And has nothing to do with Hill. Though the dough-faced actor looks nothing like him, DePodesta said Hill is "terrific" at his craft.

What makes DePodesta uncomfortable is the idea of being typecast as a laptop-toting, Ivy League nerd who eschews traditional scouting and relies only on statistics in making decisions.

Of course, that perception has some basis in truth. DePodesta, a 38-year-old Harvard graduate, doesn't have a traditional baseball background. He was ahead of the curve in using statistical analysis to exploit the game's market inefficiencies.

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Jonah Hill in 'Moneyball'
Columbia TriStar

But he also started his career as an advance scout for the Cleveland Indians. In his role as the Mets' vice president of player development and amateur scouting, he regularly travels to scout potential draft picks. He did not set out to become a symbolic figure in the changes that have swept over the game in the last decade.

While the "Moneyball" book, written by Michael Lewis, portrays him as highly intelligent, DePodesta said it also created somewhat of a caricature. And he feared the movie would do so to an even greater degree by playing up the ideological divide between him and the scouts.

More than anything, he was uncomfortable with the way his character interacted with other people in the movie.

"Like any movie, to make it interesting, there has to be some conflict there," DePodesta said. "In some respects, a lot of the conflict is going to revolve around my character, and that was never really the case in reality."

Through his publicist, Hill declined to comment. A spokesman for Sony Pictures, which produced the film, declined comment. But Lewis, the bestselling author, said DePodesta had nothing to worry about.

"People who are going to think ill of him are going to think ill of him whether he's associated with the movie or not," Lewis said. "And the people who are going to have an open mind aren't going to care one way or another whether Jonah Hill's playing him and he's called 'Google Boy.' And anyone who meets him is going to know he's his own guy."

Over the last several years, DePodesta said he met with several of the film's actors, writers and directors to talk about his role with the 2002 Athletics. The team won 103 games despite having one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, in part because of how Beane and DePodesta used statistical analysis to find bargains on the trade and free-agent markets.

DePodesta met, at different times, with both Hill and Demetri Martin, the actor who was initially slated to play him. There were various incarnations of the script, but he said he was always concerned about how he would be portrayed. Shortly before the film began shooting last year, he asked the filmmakers to remove his name from it, and they agreed.

"I think for Jonah, actually, it was even a little uncomfortable, because as he told me, it was his first time having to play a real person," DePodesta said. Making the character fictional "gave him a little more freedom to do his job."

DePodesta has not seen the movie yet, but he plans to see an advance screening at some point next week. He expects it to be somewhat surreal, and perhaps a little nerve-wracking. But the fact that he is, at least in name, invisible in it will make it easier to watch.

"I think for me, it's a lot easier to live with as long as everybody realizes it's a movie," he said. "It's not a documentary."

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